Weekend Roundtable: Christmas Wish List 2012

Have you been good boys and girls this year? Assuming that we all survive that Mayan apocalypse that should be happening right around now (but hopefully isn’t – I’m writing this post in advance!), let’s use today’s Roundtable to drop Santa, as well as our friends and loved ones, a few hints about what home theater gifts may be on our wish lists for next week’s holiday.

Luke Hickman

I typically have a hard time justifying the purchase of multi-title Blu-ray box sets. Oftentimes, I own at least one movie in a collection. The ‘Coen Brothers Collection‘ is the rare exception. I don’t own ‘Blood Simple’, ‘Fargo’, ‘Miller’s Crossing’ or ‘Raising Arizona’ yet. This set has been down to $19.99 on Amazon for some time now, so I’m embarrassed to admit that it hasn’t made its way to my shelf. I’ve been trying to drop hints to Mrs. Hickman for the past month, but I’ll have to wait until Christmas morning to see if my wish comes true.

Solely for my own nefarious purposes, I maintain a wish list on Amazon of Blu-ray discs that I’ve been meaning to grab but haven’t. When a couple of relatives asked what I wanted for the holidays, I lazily pointed them to a few titles on that list, and I might as well do the same here. Can I get a drum roll?

At the top of the list is the second volume of the ‘Looney Tunes Platinum Collection‘. Also on the animated end of things is ‘Finding Nemo‘, which will complete (for now!) my high-def Pixar collection. Rather than continue to hold out for a price drop on ‘A Streetcar Named Desire‘, I figured I’d try to get someone to shell out a few bucks for me. To scratch a particularly nostalgic itch, that list ends with ‘Masters of the Universe‘ and ‘They Live‘. I guess I’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I’ve already partially burned off a gift card I got as an early Christmas present with the lavish collector’s set of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

M. Enois Duarte

I’ll be the first to admit that I have some expensive tastes, especially in the audio arena. That’s the one aspect of my system that I’m continuously tweaking and upgrading. So, I don’t reasonably expect a loved one to give me any of these gifts (or any at all, really). But since this is only a wish list for Christmas, I suppose it won’t do any harm to at least share my wants. First up, I’d like to finish my system by finally replacing the surround speakers with a pair of B&W DS3s. Secondly, I’d love to have another Hsu VTF-15H subwoofer to pair with the one I already have and really make the house shake. Finally, and obviously the most reasonable of the bunch, I want the ‘Lawrence of Arabia‘ Collector’s Edition box set.

In the end, when it comes right down to it, I’m just happy spending time with my family watching movies… and maybe getting at least an Amazon gift card. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Brian Hoss

I’ve harped on this before with ‘The Wire’, but basically I want a Christmas gift that doesn’t yet exist. I want a legal, digital copy of the ‘Seinfeld’ series that I can stream anywhere I have internet access. I have zero interest in lugging DVDs of the series around, and whenever I’ve seen the show in HD broadcast, it has looked great. Now I just want to be able to pull up any episode on any one of a dozen devices that I have whenever I want, without having to use DVD rips. Alas, another year, another Festivus wish unrequited.

Josh Zyber

My list is pretty simple this year. I just bought a house and I’m in the process of building a home theater room in the basement. I have plenty of stuff to fill the house. What I need are Lowe’s gift cards. Lots of them. I’m quickly learning just how expensive home ownership really is. The improvement projects never end.

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Now it’s your turn. Tell Santa what you’d like for Christmas in the Comments below.

The blog will be closed on Monday and Tuesday. Depending on how busy we are, possibly Wednesday as well. We’ll see you back here at some point next week for sure, though. In the meantime, Happy Holidays to you and yours from all of us at High-Def Digest!

About Josh Zyber

Josh Zyber is a veteran movie and video disc reviewer from Laserdisc to DVD and beyond. He's previously written for DVDFile.com, DVDTalk.com and Home Theater magazine. These days, he wastes most of his free time managing this blog and writing the occasional Blu-ray review for High-Def Digest.

12 comments

EM

My Amazon wish list includes the Kymera Magic Wand Remote Control, which allows you to control components with wand gestures. It’s not at all necessary, but it just might make movies all the more magical!

My list also includes some DVD sets of the original Dark Shadows.

They’re not for home theater, but I would also like a set of video glasses and a pocket video projector.

For home theater stuff, I am with the guys about boxed sets. A few things on my wishlist (but I doubt I will get) are Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Looney Toons, and Bond.

As for non-tech stuff, I recently moved. I had been living with a roommate for 9 months – before that, I had my own place. While I was with a roommate, most of my stuff that was in storage got stolen. When I moved into the new place a month ago, I am missing stuff like Silverwear, pots and pans, stuff like that. My mom already bought me a vaccume. But that is stuff I am wanting, basically the little things most people don’t think about that most people just have.

Mike

I want a projector. Something that would work in a living room that will only allow for an 8 foot max throw. Probably closer to 7-7.5. Also, under a $1000 budget. Does that limit me to 720p? What are my options? I suddenly crave this.

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